With themes that continue to resonate a hundred years since it was first published, it’s no wonder The Velveteen Rabbit, a children’s story by Margery Williams, still captivates both adults and children alike.
A tale of enduring friendships between a boy and his toy rabbit, rooted in love and with a sprinkle of luck and magic, the timeless classic, first published in 1922, has been adapted on countless occasions both onscreen and onstage.
This fall a reimagining of the story, written by playwright Purni Morell, opens at Manitoba Theatre for Young People (MTYP).
JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Tom Keenan (left, as Rabbit) and Kamal Chioua (Boy) in The Velveteen Rabbit, which opens Friday at MTYP.
The 60-minute production at MTYP (plus 10-minute intermission) is based on Morell’s original 2014 show, which debuted at Unicorn Theatre in London, England, during her tenure as the theatre’s artistic director.
The MTYP production has a Winnipeg-based cast and crew, with director Ray Strachan at the helm. Kamal Chioua makes his MTYP debut as Boy while actor-musician Tom Keenan plays Rabbit.
“I thought: this is a really great book, it’s about everything that happens in life, it’s about friendship and acceptance, it’s about birth and death. It’s about growing up,” says Morell, who first started thinking adapting the story in 2012.
The Belgium-based playwright credits the book’s popularity to its sincere depictions of the thorny prickles of childhood, tackling issues such as feeling left out or overlooked.
Instead of hiding things away and pretending that nothing is ever going to go wrong in life, it confronts the difficult truths of childhood, she says.
“It’s an honest representation of what it feels like to be young and to want to participate in everything that life has to offer,” Morell says.
photos by JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
The Velveteen Rabbit stars (from left) Eric Blais, Kamal Chioua and Tom Keenan in a puppet-free adaptation of the beloved children’s book.
Pablo Felices-Luna, MTYP’s artistic director, says that while the themes of friendship and companionship have always been relevant, they are particularly powerful in current times, when life is slowly starting to return to normality.
“The kind of joy, playfulness and unabashed physicality we see between the Boy and the Rabbit would be moving under any circumstances, but coming off of a time when children have been unable to play that way with others, it is particularly poignant and powerful.
“The thing I liked the most about Purni’s adaptation is how open it is,” he says. “She deliberately set up the text to be a springboard for creativity. The characters don’t say a lot, but a simple stage direction like ‘The Boy and the Rabbit play. They go on extraordinary adventures’ sends you down many exciting creative paths. It allows the artists to live up to that old theatre maxim of ‘Do, don’t tell.’”
In the story Boy is presented with a stuffed rabbit, made from a velveteen glove. At first he isn’t impressed with the stuffed toy but soon Rabbit becomes his favourite plaything and the duo have wonderful times together.
As time passes Rabbit becomes more worn but is still Boy’s constant companion. However, when Boy is struck with illness, Rabbit, on the advice of a doctor, is stuffed in a sack with other toys and taken away to be burned.
Left out in the garden overnight, Rabbit sheds a tear, which causes a flower to appear. A fairy emerges from the blossom and transforms the toy into a real bunny; he joins a fluffle of wild rabbits. The following spring the now-real rabbit returns to see the boy.
JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Kamal Chioua (Boy, left) and Tom Keenan (Rabbit) have wonderful adventures in MTYP’s adaptation of Margery Williams’ book.
Morell wanted to steer away from using puppets, which is how she had usually seen the story adapted for stage. Her interpretation reimagines the rabbit as a real person, while staying faithful to the language of the book.
“I had a vivid idea of what I wanted to do, which was to turn a person into a rabbit. And I had to find a way to make a real rabbit happen. I needed an actor who could make me believe he was a rabbit.”
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